It was originally published in the seventh issue of "Watching Movies·Midnight Field" in 2016. It is limited to the length of the magazine.
In January 2016, the film "13 Hours of Crisis" directed by American director Michael Bay was released. This war movie, which cost US$50 million, allowed Paramount Pictures to recover US$69.41 million in the box office. Western film critics have received mixed praises and criticisms, and their reputation has been polarized. However, this will not affect the "blockbuster effect" of "13 Hours of Crisis" and the enthusiasm and admiration of war film fans.
The truth is
On September 11, 2012, on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the "September 11" terrorist attack in the United States, the anti-American armed forces led by the Libyan "French Faith" terrorist organization sent a report to the U.S. Embassy and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Benghazi. The intelligence station base launched an attack. In 2014, Mitchell Zukov, a professor of journalism at Boston University in the United States, published a related book "13 Hours." The script of the movie is based on "13 Hours" and related historical events. Its value lies not only in the exquisite equipment and props and the tragic battlefield special effects, but more truthfully, the characters in the play have prototypes in reality, and even the names of the prototypes are used.
In February 2011, in the international atmosphere of the "Arab Spring", a revolution against the supreme leader Gaddafi broke out in Libya. With the support and direct military intervention of the United States, Britain and France, the rebels overthrew Gaddafi's rule. However, the Libyan anti-government militants are mixed with factions, and even include Islamic radical militants that oppose Gaddafi and the West at the same time. The CIA set up an intelligence station in Benghazi. One of its tasks is to monitor these Islamic militants or terrorist organizations. On September 11, 2012, using the anti-Islamic film "Muslim Ignorance" in revenge against the United States as the "fuse", the Libyan "French Faithful" terrorist organization put into practice a long-planned attack and captured Benghazi's U.S. Embassy.
In the nearby CIA intelligence station, there are 6 armed members of the Global Response Center (GRS), of which 3 have served in the US Marine Corps, 2 have served in the "Sea Leopard" special forces, and 1 has served in the 75th. Rangers. Their duty is to protect CIA agents, but despite repeated obstructions by the director of the CIA intelligence station in Benghazi, they resolutely went to rescue the embassy. The Libyan pro-American armed "February 17th Martyrs Brigade" accompanied and supported. After rescued the agents of the U.S. Department of State Security (DSS), they withdrew to the CIA intelligence station. In the absence of assistance and insufficient military strength, it has repeatedly repelled the siege of an overwhelming number of anti-American armed forces. In the end, reinforcements from the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and GRS arrived and evacuated under the escort of the new Libyan government forces. In the armed conflict, 4 people were killed on the American side, including the ambassador to Libya Stevens, the head of foreign affairs intelligence and 2 armed GRS members. Another 4 Americans and 7 Libyan employees were injured. More than 100 anti-American militants in Libya were killed. This is the story prototype of "13 Hours of Crisis."
"Movie benefits" for military fans
The battle in the film is a low-intensity armed conflict, mainly with light weapons. The role of American armed personnel, the use of light weapons and props have a relatively high degree of modernization and standardization. The self-defense weapon of the American ambassador is the Austrian "Glock" Type 17 9mm pistol, and the GRS armed team is equipped with the "Glock" Type 19 9mm pistol and the Swiss "Sigsauer" P226R Type 9mm pistol. In a fierce battle, the GRS armed forces and the "Delta" special forces used the American M4A1 5.56 mm carbine, MK 18 Mod 0 CQB (indoor close combat receiver) 5.56 mm carbine, and SAI AR-15. "Gray" 5.56mm automatic rifle, German "Heckler-Koch" HK416 D10RS 5.56mm carbine, HK417 7.62mm sniper rifle, M240 7.62mm general machine gun, Paratrooper M249 5.56mm general machine gun, "Black Koehler-Koch" HK69A1 40mm grenade launcher. The US 10th Special Forces on the transport plane is equipped with an M16A4 5.56 mm assault rifle. DSS agents and CIA employees used M870 "Remington" shotguns and "Mossberg" 500 "compulsory" shotguns respectively.
The weapons and props of Libya's armed forces are very messy. Anti-American armed equipment is equipped with TT-30 "Tokarev" 7.62mm pistol, AKM and AKMS 7.62mm assault rifles in the Soviet-made AK-47 series, Romanian AIM 7.62mm assault rifle, Belgian FN FAL 7.62mm Automatic rifle, Soviet RPD 7.62 mm light machine gun, PKM 7.62 mm general machine gun, Dshk 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, KPVT 14.5 mm heavy machine gun, RPG-7 bazooka and American M1 81 mm mortar. The pro-American armed forces are equipped with a Chinese 56-1 type 7.62 mm assault rifle and an American M2HB type 12.7 mm heavy machine gun. On the black market, like selling cabbage, the Italian MP12S "Beretta" 9mm submachine gun, the Belgian FN2000 5.56mm assault rifle, the Russian AK-74M 5.45mm assault rifle and the Sam-7 "Holy Grail" portable air defense missile are sold everywhere on the black market. . In the movie, one of the tasks of the CIA intelligence station is to recover Sam-7, which is scattered among the people of Libya. In real history, what the CIA actually wants to recover is the Sam-24 "Needle" portable air defense missile.
Most of the heavy weapons that appeared in the movie passed by in a flash. The opening news clips include the US AH-64D "Longbow Apache" armed attack helicopter, and the Soviet-made BM-21 "Hail" 122mm vehicle-mounted rocket launcher from Libya. There is the wreckage of the American M60A3 "Barton" type main battle tank on the roadside. In fact, Libya does not have such equipment. The film was filmed in Morocco and Malta, so it should have been eliminated by the Moroccan Army. An MQ-9 "Reaper" UAV transferred by the US military is said to be unarmed in the movie, but the missile hung under the wing can be seen in the close-up lens, which has become a "piercing" lens. At the same time, U.S. F-16 "Fighting Falcon" fighter jets, CH-47 "Chinook" transport helicopters, C-17 "Global Master" transport aircraft, C-130 "Hercules" transport aircraft, and TM-69 artillery towed The cars also showed their faces one after another. Of course, the most impressive heavy equipment in the movie must be the "Mercedes-Benz" ML250 bulletproof off-road vehicle that broke through the bullets.
Such "a dazzling array" of weapons and equipment is dizzying, enough to make war movie lovers excited!
Michael Bay "exploded"
After all, it is a scene with light weapons. Compared with "Transformers", "13 Hours of Crisis" is much more restrained. However, "Boom Shell" still has enough firework special effects. Throughout the movie, "Da Da Da" at every turn, "Boom boom boom" whenever there is a disagreement. The explosion shook the sky, guns blasted, the typical Michael Bay "made".
The lens language of the movie is full of movement, even if it is the front and back shots that express the dialogue between the characters, they are often in slow motion. Since "Saving Private Ryan", shaky follow-up shots are naturally indispensable. In the footage of the anti-US armed mortars bombarding the CIA intelligence station, computer special effects simulated the camera following 81mm mortar shells from launching, falling to hitting the target. In the film "Pearl Harbor", also directed by Michael Bay, the shots of Japanese bombers hitting the battleship "Arizona" are exactly the same. This kind of "following cannonball" special effects shots has almost become Michael Bay's logo.
However, this movie did not abuse the subjective perspective of soldiers in popular war films. Except for some essential sniper scope lenses, there are not too many shots that try to substitute the audience into the perspective of soldiers participating in the war. As a film reflecting the "unsung hero", the lens is guiding the audience to "see" the hero instead of "being" the hero. This shows that the main purpose of the film is to arouse the audience's admiration for the American combatants, rather than let the audience get addicted to the war. Michael Bay once said that this movie is to realistically restore the image of the characters. For this reason, he didn't even find any movie stars to play roles.
Michael Bay did not use too many subjective shots from the perspective of soldiers, but a lot of subjective shots from the perspective of drones. Taking the circling drone as the starting point, not only enhances the sense of movement of the camera, but also allows the audience to experience the isolation and helplessness of the CIA intelligence station guards from a macro perspective, and also reflects the characteristics of the US military's information warfare.
In the movie, the Libyan armed personnel, whether they are anti-American or pro-American, are portrayed as a mob. In their hands, the RPG-7-style rocket launcher "points and not hits", the hit rate is not as good as firecrackers, and even self-defeatingly wounded himself several times. Several elite soldiers of the U.S. military were in charge, and the Libyan armed forces did not open their doors. This is true in the real Benghazi attack. This is not entirely because the United States has "blacked them out" from the perspective of ideology and religious culture, because if they are not black, they are all "mud that can't support the wall." Gaddafi’s dictatorship is certainly unsatisfactory, but the goal of the rebels is not necessarily to build a democratic society. At the end of the film, the Libyan pro-American militants hope that the GRS militants can give them unwanted cars. After getting an affirmative answer, their joyful look explained all the problems.
Today, Gaddafi has fallen, and the Islamic world has become more chaotic. The influx of Muslim refugees from the Middle East into Europe has caused a lot of social problems and has a tendency to "green" Europe. Europe, however, is under the constraints of "political correctness" and is helpless in the face of refugee riots. This is reminiscent of the content of Gaddafi’s last televised speech when the United States, Britain and France air strikes on Libya: “You are bombing a wall, a wall in Africa that blocks Al Qaeda and refugees from reaching Europe.” It seems that Kadhafi now. Zafi can be said to have come to terms. At the end of the movie, Michael Bay pointed a close-up shot of the American flag soaking in the dirty water of the American Embassy swimming pool in Benghazi. This may be a silent recognition of Gaddafi's words.
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